An epic qualifying session ended with Rubens Barrichello on pole position for tomorrow’s Brazilian Grand Prix. Heavy rain delayed the start of the sessions and then there were red flags for accidents and incidents as well.

Everything to smile about

Championship leader Jenson Button starts 14th after another nightmare session. He did not have the edge left in his tyres when the track was at its fastest and he missed the cut for the top ten shootout.

So it is advantage Barrichello. The Brazilian needs to score five points more that Button tomorrow to take the fight to the final race in Abu Dhabi. Button needs a cool nerve, a win for Barrichello would require Button to finish third to take the title. But Mark Webber, who traded pole position times with Barrichello in Q3, will attack from the outset and as he is no longer in the hunt, he will have nothing to lose.

The other championship contender Sebastian Vettel had a nightmare day. The driver most people were tipping for pole in the dry, had set his car up for a dry race and couldn’t get the grip in the wet. Traffic was also a problem for him, but he did get some clear laps and he crashed out in first qualifying. He will start the race tomorrow in 16th on the grid.

There was a lot of standing water on the track, with rivers running across the track surface at many points. Most drivers experienced aquaplaning, the stepped floor acting almost like a hull, especially on cars which were trying to run a low ride height. With the potential for a dry race in prospect, the temptation was to try to run a dry set up.

The conditions were very challenging and the delays were long. It took well over two and a half hours to get to the end; Giancarlo Fisichello spun his car early in the first qualifying session, which brought out a red flag. He had already set a time before he spun, but track conditions improved greatly after the stoppage and he ended up 20th.

The first session claimed some big scalps; as well as Vettel, Lewis Hamilton, Heikki Kovalainen and Giancarlo Fisichella and Nick Heidfeld were all eliminated.

The second session was red flagged as Tonio Liuzzi hit the pit wall hard, knocking all four wheel off his car.

Can Rubens get lucky in Brazil for the first time in his career?
Not sure you should include Fisi among the “big scalps” James. Even with the up-grades he’s got for his car this w/end that apparently Kimi didn’t get, the contrast between the teammates couldn’t be more stark.
James, do you know if Kimi was set up for a wet race? It would be astounding if he achieved his times on a dry set-up.

Deutz, Perhaps you’d like to give us a definition of a “Worthy Winner” based on a race by race analysis culminating in the maximum points scored in a season, taking into consideration the number of wins per driver. It may also be worth comparing the number of wins per season past WDC winners have enjoyed. If Rubens wins the WDC, fine, but let’s get away from this term “Worthy Winner/Champion”, the phrase adds nothing to the F1 debate. For what it’s worth, I think that without a decent hall of points for JB today I can see Rubens winning the WDC, but it will be simply because he has the most points and nothing to do with him being worthy or anything else for that matter.

This is all history now but when I said Barrichello would be a worthy winner I wasnt necessary saying that Button wasnt. I was simply expressing my desire to see in my opinion another worthy driver heading towards the end of his career achieve this amazing accolade of WDC.
Of the Brawn drivers Button made the most of the Technical advance their cars had in the first half of the season. However I beileve RB has driven spiritedly in the second half of the season.
On the weekend I believe Button did demonstrate both his desire and talent in salvaging what looked to be an impossible situation.
I’ll be honest I’m not a Button fan but nor am I a Barrichello fan. Button as with many past champions has made the most out of the equipment he had at this diposal.
A worthy champion? Yes.

c’mon, things like that do not happen in real world, this is a fairytale what you saying here. Utterly impossible. Yet somehow, us much as I wish all the best to Jenson I even more want the scenario you have described to come true. Come on Rubens!

James, the question has to be asked is why Jensons race engineer Andrew Shovlin not call Jenson into the pits and put him on the intermediate tyre.
To me it looked pretty much a schoolboy error and i fear it could cost Jenson the title.

Anyhow, I’m still not counting Button out. Attrition should be high if it gets damp or wet and Barrichello has terrible luck here in Brazil. Not to mention the real possibility of Webber being the fastest come tomorrow.

In the meantime, I hope Button, Vettel and Hamilton put up a show as they climb the field. The weather is a mess, it’s no use fueling them too heavy.

Memo to Ross Brawn, the WCC will be yours tomorrow. There will be something to celebrate.

It’s going to be interesting to see what kind of race we have tomorrow. If it’s dry, we could see guys like Vettel, Hamilton, and Kovalainen- who are all on a dry setup- go flying through the field. They’ll be significantly quicker than the guys on the wet weather setups.

A very long qualifying session, but the outcome has made up for the long awaiting. This is the race when Buton needs to deliver and show us if he truly deserves to be a worthy champion. Can’t wait for the race tomorrow.
James, how is the forecast for tomorrow’s race time?

80% + chance for rain in the race tomorrow as well I see. It could still well happen for button tomorrow. If he keeps it on the track there is a very good possibility to score with the kers neutralized and all the inexpreiance in front of him

Great for Rubens. Shocker from Button. Frankly, I think Barrichelo deserves the title more than Button – Barrichelo has been a star during the last part of the season and he has coped with the preassure a lot better than Button. Should be a fun race either way…nice to see Kimi dragging the Ferrari up to 5th as well. Go Rubens !

With the fuel weights Button looks to have a fighting chance. Barrichello is lightest so I think Webber has a good chance to jump him meaning Jenson needs to finish FOURTH if Rubens is second but Sutil is also threatening with his position meaning a FIFTH would suffice for Jenson if Rubens was third. Basically Jenson needs to get around the Senna S. That corner could determine the world championship. If Jenson is taken off there the championship is Rubens.

I’ve been a JB fan for a long time to, but frankly, I don’t think he deserves this title any more. All you ever have to do in this sport is beat your team mate, which he hasn’t done in the second half of the season. YOu can’t call yourself the best in the world with that track record

Thankfully the BBC jumped to BBC2 (Come Dancing was even delayed) – I don’t know if Bernie has some agreement which forced them to show the whole session live?

But I thought this was the best qualifying show of the year. I’d have felt cheated if they hadn’t completed all three sessions. As for using the Q1 times, what would you do with fuel loads? It would have been a farce and risked accusations of it being a contrived show.

To be fair the BBC team deserves some credit – they filled the gaps superbly and all the teams seemed to understand the need to help the broadcasters with some entertaining input from Horner, Howett, Head, Hamilton (hmmm all the “H’s” in fact). It was an excellent and compelling piece of broadcasting.

But the bottom line is this…. surely it was worth the wait to have Rubens in P1 and Button and Vettal right down the grid? Great qualifying setting up what will hopefully be a great race and an even greater run down to Abu Dhabi.

Luckily here in SA we had uninterrupted coverage the whole way through, and it was actually quite interesting having the opportunity to listen in to a few other players in F1. Must say Eddie Jordan is a cynical chap hey!!

Anyways, my point is, I’ve watched this sport for many years, and never seen this before. I don’t think the rules need to be changed due to one occurace (yes it sort of happened to an extent in Japan), but just let it be!

What they need to work on is the racing! It’s a frightening statistic that this year there have been far fewer overtaking moves than last, and this is with the overtaking groups input! And I have unfortunately this season had too many ocassions where I have thought, I should have recorded this so I could fast forward through the boring bits, I never thought I would think let alone write that ever!

“I see his championship title having the same ‘value’ as Hill in 96, basically more credit to the car & team, than driver skill!”

Damon Hill is the most criminally underrated driver in F1 history. This is a driver who nearly won a race with the bloody Arrows team on pace, to begin with. He was a very good wet weather driver and won a number of wet races in impressive performances. He worked well with the team to set up and develop the car. Williams has admitted years after the split that it was his worst mistake to dump Hill, and the slip in the team’s fortunes years after his departure is no coincidence.

What a load of rubbish. You can’t compare winning your 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, or 7th championship with the pressure of your first – and schumi only won that one by driving into Damon… Rubens is a classic case of someone who throws his toys out of the pram when things don’t go his way.

Just read the fuel wieghts. Looking at the numbers it looks like Rubens has to try and make a decent gap to Webber, AS & JT before his first stop…they are all fuelled to go further. I see Button now has SV alongside so that will be interesting to see going into turn 1. I think both JB & SV will also have one eye on therookies around them going into Turn 1.
Do you know why both Mclarens are still carrying the same fuel as Webber? Either way it looks like more grey hairs for british sports fans!

They’re going aggressive to overtake cars in the first stint. If it’s dry today, it will work beautifully with the advantage they’ll have with a dry setup and a car that was already working well on race fuel in the dry.

If it’s a dry race tomorrow, the fight for victory will be down to the McLaren drivers and Vettel, who is also on a dry setup. It’ll be like Suzuka 2005, when Raikkonen and Alonso stormed through the field. The McLaren drivers will have to get ahead of Vettel on the start and get the hell away from him, but if they do that, they’ll be in with a shot.

If it’s a wet race tomorrow, McLaren don’t have a prayer. Webber will likely win with the stronger car and better strategy. Barrichello will have a fight on his hands with Sutil, Trulli, and Buemi (who is VERY quick) for the podium.

It’s a stupid rule that cars can’t be changed from wet to dry setups before the race. It makes the race more of a lottery, and it’s not about who is the best team anymore (more which team has the best weather-forecast…). The weather is always unpredictable, so there shouldn’t be any rules tight to this.

Normally I’d love to see a wet race – but the big danger is that is rains hard, Webber does his usual “I’m more worried about driving in rain than being a racing driver” act and the race gets stopped with only half points awarded, crowning Button.

Glock apparently switched to engine 9 in Japan but didn’t race, therefore assuming that engine is still in the car for Brazil, does Kobayashi have to take the penalty, or does the count reset and he actually has 8 engines to play with for 2 races?

Jenson is certainly giving a good impression of someone making heavy weather of winning this WDC. While I think he’s handling the pressure well during the races (he hasn’t thrown the car off the track desperately trying to get the last few points he needs), he doesn’t make it easy for himself with his qualifying performances!

Given that even if he DNFs the last 2 races the others still have to do alot to overtake him, I’d have thought Button would take the opportunity to ‘go for it’ more than be conservative like he has been.

I hope that it stays dry for at least the first part of the race, as at least then there’s the best chance of a clean start – especially for Button and Vettel.

Another good performance from Kimi, single-handedly taking Ferrari to what looks like 3rd place in WCC now (as LH quali’d so far back for this race). The contrast between his times and Fisi’s since he arrived in the time has been giant. It will be bizarre, will it not, if Kimi is not able to get a very top drive for next year – after all in his time at Ferrari he was WDC in his first year, 3rd in WDC in his second year, and this year in the last 7/8 races at least has been showing his ultra-consistent star quality in what his team manager Luca Domenicali has admitted is a dog of a car. In other words, there is no reason for him not to be in a very top car car next year and yet the way things have panned out, it is unclear whether he will even have a drive, as things stand!

I reckon he would be more than a match for Lewis alongside him at Macca, which will make Lewis nervous, as clearly Lewis’s first aim is to be no. 1 in the team he is in (this was his stated aim when Alonso came to Macca). let us cross fingers that we are not in the bizarre situation of Kimi not even being in F1 next year because of the way things have turned out. this would be the fate of a driver who is no longer any good, or someone on the downhill slope at the minimum, and neither of these things is what KR is.

A question, I thought that after quali the cars go into parc femme. I am just watching the grand prix on the BBC(Sunday) a interview with Rubens that took place in the evening after quali and in the back ground mechanics are working on his car, How is that allowed? And if it is allowed what changes can they make?